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Sunday, March 31, 2019

Now that I have some down time while I recover from back surgery, I was finally able to write up a pattern I made about 5 years ago. This basketweave hat would accompany my basketweave scarf well.

Materials:

Worsted weight yarn (170-200 yds) - 1 or 2 colors if you would like the brim to be a different color than the main hat

H hook

G hook

Abbreviations:

ch - chain

dc - double crochet

sl st - slip stitch

st/sts - stitch(es)

fpdc - front post double crochet

bpdc - back post double crochet

Pattern:Main HatH hook

Ch
3. 9 dc into third ch from hook. Join with a sl st to first dc. Join like this
throughout (join with sl st to first stitch in the round). (You can start this
round with a magic ring instead of the ch 3 if you would like.)

Saturday, March 30, 2019

For those who have been following me for a while will remember my ACL reconstruction and subsequent second surgery 7 months later. The first surgery was an awful an experience. I found out the hard way that I likely have some sort of genetic anomaly which makes opioid pain medication completely ineffective in me. Hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (Oxycotin), and morphine all don't work. I get zero pain relief and no semblance of a high from any of them.

Well, I just had my third surgery in four years. Luckily, my knee is okay. It's my back this time. I've talked about my back twice on this blog. I herniated what is probably the most commonly herniated disc in 2008. I was 18 at the time. I've had some flare ups since (about 5 of them), but the latest flare up that started last November was different from the rest. The previous ones were all because I didn't keep up with the core exercises and muscles just got weak. This recent one was the result of me exercising. Physical therapy didn't make things better and sometime made it worse.

After missing several days of work over a couple weeks because of the pain, I got another MRI and saw a spine specialist. He told me the disc had herniated more somewhere in the last 10.5 years. I opted for surgery (microdiskectomy).

I'm still in a fair amount of pain, four days out from surgery. Just like with my knee, pain management was an issue that, in my opinion, was not resolved. I was discharged from the hospital with pain I was rating as 7/10. I understand they couldn't admit me, but I feel like something else should have been done for the pain.

I'm hoping things will start feeling like they did before last November (but really like before July 2008) soon. I've been in pain for so long I'm really at a breaking point. I keep seeing people in videos online, TV shows, movies, and just outside my window and they are able to walk normally. I haven't been able to do that since last November. It really feels like I'll never be back to that. I know that isn't the case, but it feel like it.

I guess the reason why I'm sharing this and why I shared my other medical issues in the past is that it makes me feel less alone in this. If you want to help support me in this, I have a link to Buy Me a Coffee somewhere on the right panel.